Technology Strategy Board

Driving Innovation

Collaboration across
digital industries
Round 1 Competition for funding
collaborative R&D and trials
July 2010
Table 1: This is a competition for proposals that address at least two of the challenge areas –
people, digital content & services, and networks

People Content & Services Networks

Community Community Community

The general public, including Originators, owners and distributors of Owners, operators and programmers
consumer and business users creative and digital content, plus the of the internet’s infrastructure.
of the internet. designers and operators of services.

Background Background Background

Internet users are the ultimate In the context of file-sharing and The networks enable the delivery of
beneficiaries of the power of the difficulties in managing intellectual content and services to the user, but
internet, and are also the source of property rights, new business often receive no direct rewards for
revenue that sustains the entire models are needed, alongside increased traffic or improved service
business ecosystem. They must be advertising, to assure the long-term quality. This reduces incentives to
willing and confident to use it, and economic success of the sector. invest or to make available the full
must value the experience they receive. capabilities of the network to create
versatile products.

Example Example Example

35 10 80

9
30 70
8
60
25
% of UK Households

7
PB/month ‘000s

50
20 6
£ Billion

5 40
15
4 30

10 3
20
2
50 10
1

0 0
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2005 2006 2007 2008 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Video to TV Video to PC File Sharing Online Conventional All Internet Access Broadband Access
Web/Email By Sub-Segment (PB per month)
Gaming, Voice, Video Comms Source : CISCO, 2009 Source : IAB, 2009 Source : ONS, 2009

Consumer internet traffic doubles UK advertising revenues are declining,
every year but is dominated by and even though online advertising
content that does not directly has overtaken TV, it too has flattened
create revenue. off as multiple channels compete
for attention.
Two-thirds of UK households have
a broadband connection; there is
general political consensus to achieve
universal availability, with ‘next-
generation’ becoming accessible to 90%
of the population in the next few years.

Challenge Challenge Challenge

Protection and enablement: to create To generate sustainable revenues To justify investment to expand the
trust, security and privacy in services from creative content and services, networks’ reach, capacity and capability.
that are highly available, usable and to enable continued market growth
can be personalised. of the UK creative content sector.
Collaboration across digital industries
Competition for funding collaborative R&D and trials

Summary
Over the next 12 months we will invest
up to £18m in this competition, which
challenges businesses to develop an
internet with a sustainable economic
future from which all participants will
benefit. To this end, we have identified
three challenge areas:
K people
K digital content and services
K networks.

In this first round, we anticipate providing

up to £10m to support collaborations
between industry sectors, which must
substantially address at least two of these
challenge areas.

The specific challenges are outlined

in table 1 opposite. We will invest at least
50% of our budget in projects that address
all three challenges.

In this round we will fund two types

of project addressing these challenge
areas, both attracting 50% public funding:
K strategic research
and development projects
K ground-breaking trials.
This round of the competition is open to
all UK-based companies and research
organisations in business-led consortia,
and may be of particular interest to those
designing and operating internet networks,
or the services that operate over them, and
those who are concerned with how digital
content is distributed to, and used by,
customers.
We will be funding:
K fast-track projects: up to £100k in
total project value. These should be
completed within 12 months, and
K mainstream projects: more than
£100k in total project value. These
will last from about 12 months up to
a maximum of 24 months.
The competition for fast-track funding
opens on 14 June 2010. For mainstream
projects, the competition opens on
12 July 2010.
Background and challenges
The internet touches all aspects of our lives,
reaching across shopping, travel, banking,
healthcare, education, communication and
entertainment, and it is revolutionising the
way we work. The implications are
profound for all businesses. The most
strongly affected are those working to
create and distribute information and to
offer services to customers, who are
finding that conventional commerce needs
to be fundamentally rethought. This is an
exciting time of opportunity and risk. It is
a time ripe for innovation.
In our digital strategy (see
www.innovateuk.org under Publications)
we identified three interdependent
challenge areas: people, digital
content and services, and networks.
Much effort has already been devoted to
these challenges, but often an advance
in one area has unintended repercussions
in the others; for example, protecting
ownership rights can impact user privacy
or reduce opportunities for innovation,
controlling peak traffic volumes can affect
service quality, and poor rewards for
improved network service inhibit the
roll-out of infrastructure.
These challenges must be addressed
together, to develop a sustainable future
for the internet economy, and to advance
our vision that all participants should
benefit fairly from the creation,
distribution and consumption of digital
content and services.
We expect there to be one or two
more rounds of this competition in this
financial year.

Technology Strategy Board


Our digital programme
The difficulty of bringing together these
multiple communities, to invest jointly to
address multiple challenges, provides
an argument for our intervention. Through
this competition we are therefore investing
£18m in the overlap between the three
challenge areas, to encourage new
cooperative ways of working (see below).
Figure 1: We are targeting projects in the
overlap between the three challenge areas
Content &
People Services
Networks
Competition for Funding – issue 2 December 2008
This competition is part of our £30m digital
investment programme, which also
involves creating the UK Digital Testbed.
The testbed will come online in phases
through the second half of 2010 and will
enable businesses from all communities to
work together, to assemble and
demonstrate new services and applications
quickly and at minimal cost to the innovator.
The testbed will have many shared resources
and capabilities, and more will be added
throughout the programme. Businesses
conducting trials on the testbed will be granted
free and open access to, for example:
K a registered population of thousands
of users, who will test and respond to
experimental services, and provide
instant market intelligence
K the ability to record and analyse the
use of content and services within the
testbed environment
K enabling technologies, which might
include network controls, metadata tools,
intelligent and interactive interfaces,
and standardised interoperability
Informed Personal Travel
K business services such as billing
and payment systems (notably
micropayments)
K shared content resources such as
media warehouses, or the government
databases made available through
data.gov.uk
K the experimental business process
support applications and services of
other trialists, which businesses can
combine with their own ideas.
These facilities and resources will
remove barriers to experimentation
beyond the boundaries of current
business practice. Businesses will gain
confidence that their products and
services are well designed by
demonstrating them in front of real
customers, in realistic conditions, and
with experimental controls in place.
We are encouraging businesses
throughout the UK to use this resource,
whether through projects funded by us
or on their own initiative.
Scope
In this competition we are inviting
proposals that will address the multiple
challenges and contribute to an innovative
ecosystem of internet businesses.
In particular we are interested in compound
business models and partnerships that
share revenues for the benefit of all.
To create a phased portfolio of projects
within the evolving digital programme,
the competition is structured in a series
of rounds over 12 months. The aim of
this first round is to invest in innovative
collaborations across industry sectors.
We make a distinction between the
following types of projects:
K R&D – which increases and integrates
technology capabilities, and progresses
in stages towards marketable products

K trials – which investigate users’
responses to prototype products and
extract market intelligence that can be
used to build business confidence.
In round 1 we are inviting proposals that
are one of the following:
K strategic development projects, with
the potential to cause substantial and
lasting change in the industries of the
internet, involving R&D and possibly
also incorporating a trial for the testbed
K ground-breaking trials for the testbed
that will contribute to a vibrant
ecosystem that fuels innovation and
attracts consumers
Proposals should demonstrate that they
contribute a technology, resource or
service that will be available for further
collaboration.
We will be funding fast-track projects (up
to £100k in total project value), which
should be completed within 12 months;
and mainstream projects (more than
£100k in total project value), which will last
from about 12 months up to a maximum of
24 months. Both types of project will
attract 50% public funding.
All proposals in this round must
demonstrate how they address
substantial challenges in at least
two of the three challenge areas.
We will reserve at least 50% of the
funding budget for projects that address
the challenges of all three areas.
Successful consortia that generate enabling
technologies, services or resources may
be eligible to receive follow-on funding to
support their continued involvement in the
UK Digital Testbed.
The competition is open to all UK-based
companies and research organisations
in business-led consortia. Consortia must
consist of organisations from at least
two of the three challenge areas. We invite
the participants in successful feasibility
Collaboration across digital industries
Competition for funding collaborative R&D and trials
studies previously funded by us to enter Briefings for fast-track projects will be held
this competition as part of a consortium on 22 June 2010, and for mainstream
to take their work to the next level. projects on 21 July 2010, to explain the
application process and competition
requirements. We strongly advise that all
Assessment criteria applicants attend.
Since R&D and trials have different
Fast-track projects
objectives and processes, we will use
different criteria to assess these components Applicants must submit a single
in each proposal. The assessment criteria application form by 22 July 2010.
are outlined in the Guidance for Applicants
(see www.innovateuk.org under Mainstream projects
Competitions). It is important that
Applicants must submit a compulsory
applicants refer to these criteria before
expression of interest application form
completing and submitting their proposal.
by 19 August 2010. An optional
expression of interest may be submitted
Application process by 12 August 2010. In this case we will
review the proposal and give feedback
Full details of the application process will before the compulsory expression of
be included in the Guidance for Applicants, interest is submitted. The compulsory
available at www.innovateuk.org under forms will be assessed and we will invite
Competitions. Applicants must read this a shortlist of applicants to submit a full
document before submitting a proposal. application by 4 November 2010.
Key dates
Fast track projects
Competition opens 14 June 2010
Optional briefing 22 June 2010
Deadline for applications 22 July 2010
Decision to applicants 20 August 2010
Mainstream projects
Competition opens 12 July 2010
Optional briefing 21 July 2010
Deadline for submission of optional expression of interest 12 August 2010
Deadline for submission of compulsory expression of interest 19 August 2010
Decision to applicants 10 September 2010
Full stage opens 13 September 2010
Compulsory briefing 21 September 2010
Deadline for submission of full-stage applications 4 November 2010
Decision to applicants 10 December 2010
Technology Strategy Board
Collaboration across digital industries
Competition for funding collaborative R&D and trials
Further information
For more information about this and other
competitions, and details of how to register
and apply, visit www.innovateuk.org
under Competitions.
Competition helpline:
0300 321 4357
Email:
competitions@tsb.gov.uk
Publicity
The Technology Strategy Board frequently
publicises the results of competitions
and this includes engagement with the
media. All applicants will be given a
chance during the competition process to
opt out of any publicity. Willing applicants
will be asked to provide an agreed form of
words for use in publicity material. Email
pressoffice@tsb.gov.uk with any queries.
The Technology Strategy Board is a
business-led executive non-departmental
public body, established by the
Government. Its role is to promote and
support research into, and development
and exploitation of, technology and
innovation for the benefit of UK business,
in order to increase economic growth and
improve quality of life.
Collaborative research and development is
part of the Government’s Solutions for
Business portfolio.
The Technology Strategy Board
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© Technology Strategy Board May 2010 T10/032
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